


Returning

by justtoarguewithyou



Series: Tumblr Comfort Mini Fest with SwottyPotter [7]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Post-Hogwarts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-25
Updated: 2020-09-25
Packaged: 2021-03-07 17:54:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,199
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26651731
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/justtoarguewithyou/pseuds/justtoarguewithyou
Summary: Today's Theme was Returning. This ended up being a little Solitude, too.A slice of life during the war: Remus liaises with others who have lycanthropy. He comes home to Sirius. Eventually.
Relationships: Sirius Black/Remus Lupin
Series: Tumblr Comfort Mini Fest with SwottyPotter [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1933714
Comments: 3
Kudos: 20





	Returning

Albus Dumbledore had sent Remus to “liaison with werewolves.”

Dumbledore didn’t seem to hear Remus when Remus argued that You Know Who was luring people ( _people_ , never werewolves, because it irked Remus to be defined by his condition; because he was a person, _dammit_ ) to his side because he promised to do away with the Werewolf Registry altogether.

Because of the Registry, Remus couldn’t hold a job for very long; the Ministry had strengthened it since he was a child. He had been one of the last exceptions to a magical education. No provisions had been made for other children bitten by Greyback. At least, not as far as Remus knew.

He knew that it was difficult for people with lycanthropy to get a wand, even if they could teach themselves some magic from KwikSpell courses, or just reading Hogwarts text books.

Remus’s work had been fruitless, as there was nothing the Order could offer in any real, concrete way. Just a promise of “a better tomorrow,” Dumbledore had said. But politician’s promises weren’t going to win anyone over. It was nothing. The Order could offer them nothing. The Ministry offered them less than nothing.

“At least here we have each other,” a woman had said. She’d been looking for a “mate,” as she called it. “I was bitten when I was 10. My parents kept me home afterwards, and once they learned there was nothing they could do, they abandoned me. I woke up one morning and everything was gone. I lived on the streets. I found a pack of my own. Stay, Remus. We will take care of each other.”

Remus slept alone. He hated it.

The transformation had been terrible—his anxiety heightened the transformation. The wolf had howled long and loud; it didn’t appreciate being surrounded by other wolves. The wolf had a pack, and this was not it. The wolf picked a few fights that full moon, and though he had come off victorious, it didn’t sit well with those the wolf had challenged.

Then, there came the rumors that Greyback was coming to the den.

“Sod this,” Remus muttered, and decided to leave; this mission had been, frankly, a waste of time.

Remus couldn’t go straight to Sirius. He had to make sure he wasn’t being followed. One man in particular seemed to hold a grudge against the wolf. Remus had managed to shake him off after a day of running.

As a person with lycanthropy, Remus never had any steady income. But Sirius would secret wizarding and muggle money into his pockets. Sirius loved muggle paper money, as it weighed nothing, and Remus never knew it was there until he needed it.

On the second day, Remus unbuttoned the pockets on the front of his denim shirt. Sirius had put in a £50 in one pocket, and two £20 notes in the other. They weren’t crisp bills. They were well worn, silent. Remus grinned, and went to have the biggest breakfast of his life.

While he ate, he thought about the futility of his mission, and the absolute blessing that was Sirius. Remus didn’t have a lot of things, would never have a lot of things. But he did have the love of a generous wizard, and he always thanked his lucky stars. He laughed, as he chewed his toast, and drank his coffee.

He ordered another two eggs, and some more pork sausage. The transformation always left him starving, and he hadn’t been able to eat much the day before.

Remus didn’t have his wand. He’d left it in their flat; though he was proficient at nonverbal, and wandless magic, having taken extra lessons with the newly appointed Professor Flitwick, who knew just as well as Remus that one day, Remus might have his wand taken from him.

“Your wand is just a channel for your own innate magic,” Professor Flitwick had told him. “Of course, the wood and the core help your magic resonate. But it’s all you. Try again.”

The third day, Remus risked apparition, and went to his great-grandmother’s house where he’d played as a child in Northern Wales. It had long been abandoned, and looked like a witch’s hut from a muggle fairytale. He smiled, because his great-grandmother had been a very nice sort of witch. He was exhausted from the moon, and from running, his whole body ached. He didn’t have all the niceties that Sirius had kept at their flat for his post-transformation care. He’d lost the little first aid kit that Sirius had tucked into his things. All Remus could do was sleep. He woke up starving.

The fourth day, Remus found himself in Manchester where he and Sirius had come once for a Muggle football match the summer after leaving Hogwarts.

“We can do anything, go anywhere,” Sirius had said excitedly.

Remus still wasn’t sure how that translated into seeing Man U play their opening game against Birmingham City. But they’d gone, gotten very drunk, and Sirius got his first tattoo: a triple moon symbol on the inside of his left wrist. An old pagan symbol.

“But it’s for you, really,” Sirius had later whispered in his ear, while nuzzling his ear, kissing his neck. “My Moony.”

Remus wandered around the city, paid to see a movie he slept through, and went to the same tattoo parlor that Sirius had gone to. Remus paid to have the Canis Major constellation tattooed over his heart. A little sentimental maybe, but he missed Sirius so much.

He took a muggle bus to London, and slept.

Remus opened the door to the flat.

“Sirius?” he called.

He heard Sirius’s toothbrush clatter in the sink, and suddenly Sirius was out of the bathroom, and had his hands in Remus’s hair, clutching his face and pressing desperate kisses to his mouth.

“Moony, Moony, Moony,” Sirius cooed, holding Remus so so close, almost as if Sirius could hide him inside himself. Remus felt himself relax for the first time in more than a month, melting against Sirius’s chest.

“I’ve been so miserable without you,” Sirius said.

“You have no idea,” Remus said. “They’re just people Sirius. They just want to live, and have a safe place to transform, and care afterward. No one is biting children except Greyback. I didn’t meet one person who’d turned anyone. And if people are angry for being shunned and ostracized, I can’t say that I blame them. It’s not like the Order is doing anything about reforming the Registry.”

Remus’s eyes blazed. He’d had this argument with Dumbledore before.

Sirius led Remus to the bathroom, and helped him into the bath. Sirius delighted in Remus’s tattoo, kissing Remus’s red chest. Sirius coated it in a healing salve, and kissed Remus again for good measure.

Remus told him everything he’d learned and heard, and as he talked, Sirius shampooed his hair, and washed his back. Sirius was extra gentle, as he could tell the transformation had gone poorly. He knew Remus’s body better than his own.

“I don’t know what I’d do without you, Sirius,” Remus said, as Sirius dried him off and took him to bed.

Remus didn’t ever want to find out.

**Author's Note:**

> Please send me prompts. This is more fun than watching TV. I am on [Tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/justtoarguewithyou)


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